How to Represent Animal Rights in Your School

The public school system is one of the worst offenders when it comes to animal rights, and many young students feel as if being an animal activist is a constant struggle. You might find, though, that other students are more receptive than the school itself, and are eager to learn how to help animals. Here are a few steps towards using your school as an environment to share the message of animal kindness.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Don't dissect. Most schools have dissection as part of their science courses, and teachers will tell you that it is mandatory in order to pass the class. This is ABSOLUTELY not true, and you can request a meeting with the school administrator if you have to. The reason this is so important is because not only will you not have to cut open an animal, but there may be someone else who doesn’t want to do it and is unaware that they can say no as well. If more people refuse to dissect animals, then fewer animals will killed for dissection.
2. USE your captive audience. Many classes require that you do spoken reports in front of your class about subjects of your choosing. Take the opportunity to talk about topics that relate to animal kindness. An excellent possible topic to begin with is the problem with fur, since most people already agree with the idea that in this day and age we don’t need to kill animals for warmth or clothing. If you are allowed to use visual aids, a quick search of the internet for animal abuse will give you many pictures and statistics with which to work. And in closing, you have the opportunity to provide your classmates with an easy way to become involved themselves: phone numbers and email addresses of congressional offices, which they can call or write to express their concern about animal abuse.
3. GO vegetarian in the cafeteria. Some schools already provide vegetarian alternatives to normal school lunches. Be sure to set an example by buying those when you eat at school. And if your school doesn’t have alternatives, or they don’t have many, speak directly to the staff about creating more options. Not only are vegetarian lunches more kind to animals, they’re also more healthy for children.
4. Advertise. Everywhere you walk, you have the opportunity to advertise. Whether it’s the covers of your books and notebooks or the message on the front of your t-shirt, you can always have a message of animal kindness out there for the world to see. Many places online will provide free stickers and advertisements, including PETA. It might just be that a student seeing the sticker on your notebook could lead to a conversation about animal kindness.

Tips & Warnings

• Be a good example for the message you are putting out. No one wants to listen to someone who doesn’t seem like they mean it themselves.
• Use other topics of concern to focus on animal kindness; if there is an anti-littering campaign, stress how litter destroys animal habitats and can poison and kill animals.
• Kids will always be mean. They may be mean to you because of your beliefs, but you can know that it is for a good reason.
• Teachers and faculty, especially science teachers, will sometimes try to scare or intimidate you. But there is nothing wrong with what you do, so don’t let them push you around.